Lost hikers found on the Caroux by a SDIS 34 drone

Two hikers who had lost their way in the Massif du Caroux, Hérault, were found early on Friday morning thanks to a drone which made it possible to geolocate them.

Given the temperatures expected overnight on Thursday, it was important to act quickly once the rescue team were made aware of the missing hikers. For the first time in Hérault, the SDIS 34 drone team of three tele-pilots deployed the new thermal drone.

“This drone makes it possible to do two things at the same time: a night vision with the infrared but it also uses the flashlight. When we have lost people who have a telephone, we can communicate with them, and they can tell us if they see our light. That’s what we did on Thursday night, then we recovered the GPS data from the drone, and we could get to the lost hikers on foot. It was gone midnight, but we managed to recover them safely,” explained Colonel Bonnafoux, head of the drone team.

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